Poor Barbie. She had plastic surgery to become more socially acceptable. But a lot of her critics still don’t like her.
可憐的芭比,通過整容來滿足世俗審美,但批評者們?nèi)匀徊毁I賬。
Barbie’s manufacturer, Mattel, announced Thursday that the doll has three new body types – curvy, tall and petite. Barbie will also now come in seven skin tones, 22 eye colors and 24 hairstyles. Mattel spokeswoman Michelle Chidoni said the product is evolving to “offer more choices” to make “the line more reflective of the world girls see around them.”
Kris Macomber, who teaches sociology at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C., says she’s “reluctant to celebrate Barbie’s new strategy because it doesn’t change the fact that Barbie dolls and other kinds of fashion dolls still over-emphasize female beauty. Why must we keep sending girls the message that being beautiful is so important?”
Josh Golin, the executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said the changes are a testament to activists who for years have challenged Barbie’s “unrealistic and harmful body type.” But body type “was only one of the criticisms,” he said. “The other was the brand’s relentless focus on appearance and fashion.”
Kumea Shorter-Gooden, a co-author of Shifting: The Double Lives of Black Women in America, has said in the past that Barbie has a bigger impact on black girls struggling with messages about skin color and hair. She applauded Mattel “for diversifying the size and look of Barbie,” but noted that “European-American hair still prevails,” and that the dolls’ outfits still “convey a traditional and constraining gender norm about how girls and women should look.”
Barbie sales fell 14 percent in the most recently reported quarter, with worldwide sales falling every year since 2012.
自2012年起,芭比玩偶在全世界的銷量就年年下降。在最近的季報中,芭比銷量下降了14%。
Mattel said it will still sell the original 11.5-inch Barbie. The new versions will begin arriving on U.S. shelves in March.
美泰稱,公司還會繼續(xù)銷售11.5英寸的芭比。新款芭比將于今年3月登陸美國市場。
Some saluted the new Barbie. Trina Finton, a Hispanic mom from Simi Valley, Calif., who works in tech and once bought herself an engineer Barbie, was “thrilled” to hear about the new looks, especially the curly hair. In the past, when she’s taken her 3-year-old daughter to Target, “I avoid the Barbie aisle. I just don’t want her to feel bad that she can’t see a doll that looks like her.”